Despite the widespread abandonment of death sentencing by many developed nations, the United States continues to execute citizens every year. The standard methods used to execute Americans have evolved over time. Each state has adopted their own preferences for sentencing those convicted of the most heinous crimes. Death by lethal injection is now most commonly practiced and hangings, firing squads, and the electric chair, have been progressively phased out. American society continues to dignify which methods are cruel and unusual, but will not principally condemn the practice. Those who oppose capital punishment argue that it serves no purpose. If there is no rational utility in killing convicts, maybe more people would feel compelled to abandon it all together. In reality, the only utilities ever reaffirmed by supporters of the death penalty are those involving retribution or deterring elements. Should a decision concerning the fate of a person’s life be made in court? Is it possible for the government to simultaneously curb violence and to justify executing people? Taking a life for vengeance will not right the wrong, and violence only breeds more violence. Many people who support capital punishment are under the impression that it costs more to imprison a person than it does to kill them with lethal injection. What most people don’t take into consideration is how quickly expenses add up in the U.S. justice system. When a person is charged with capital murder, it is
The justice system is filled with opposition. Those who support the use of Supermax, the death penalty and the execution of those who are mentally retarded and juveniles, and those who oppose the above mentioned. The following essay will discuss all mentioned topics.
The death penalty is a more expensive than the alternative life without the possibility of parole option in monetary terms, time, and resources spent. It is acknowledged that there is no national figure for the exact cost of the death penalty but many states and researchers do have estimates. All of which concluding that the death penalty is the more expensive than life without parole. This option is gradually becoming more expensive with each passing years due to factors that will be discussed from an article from The Marshall Project. The death penalty is more than the physical execution of the accused, it includes money and time dedicated to having inmates on death row. Death row does automatically imply heightened security and extra expenses. Maurice Chammah in his article “Six Reasons the Death Penalty is Becoming More Expensive” states that, “Felons sentenced to life in prison may eventually be placed in the general population, but death row inmates are virtually always housed in administrative segregation, or solitary confinement…” which can mean double or more the cost than of housing general population inmates (Chammah, 2015). The time inmates can spend on death row varies from months to years with the longest being close to 40 years. People do not realize that majority of the death penalty’s cost is not a part of any budget. Instead, they are buried in thicket of legal proceedings and hours spent by judges, clerks, prosecutors, experts and law enforcement
Throughout mankind has been using the death penalty as a form of punishment. Many people argue with this type of punishment because they believe in an eye for an eye. Many people that it is okay to murder a human being due to them having killed an individual over time. There have been many cases that have proven that they death penalty violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, being very expensive, and innocent lives are convicted.
Over the years, humans have committed crimes so heinous that incarceration would, arguably, not suffice as a justified punishment. These crimes are responsible for the proposal of “The Death Penalty”, which is when execution becomes the verdict after a criminal case. Some of the methods used in the past have been deemed cruel and unusual, whereas others have been justified based on overwhelming evidence of the crime committed. The most common method in modern society would be death by Lethal Injection, however, methods differ by state. For example, in the state of Utah, death by Firing Squad is still an option to convicts. This lethal method is administered in a total of 17 states. Although the person convicted is being executed, the method must still be as humane as possible, regardless of the crime. States have certain regulations for the method they use, but if it is compromised, an alternative method will be chosen by default. Alternatives could include methods such as Death by Hanging, The Electric Chair, The Gas Chamber or death by Firing Squad. Some areas of the justice system view these alternatives as barbaric or inhumane.
Keeping a prisoner in jail for life will be very expensive considering that it costs $80,000 a year; and the bad news is that the money comes from the taxpayer's pocket. Thousands of people will attack the death penalty. They will give emotional speeches about the one innocent man who might be executed. However, all of these people are forgetting one crucial element. They are forgetting the thousands of victims who die every year. This may sound awkward, but the death penalty saves lives. It saves lives because it stops those who murder from ever murdering again (Bryant). These opinions represent some of the strongest and most influential views that proponents hold. However, if our prison system could rehabilitate more effectively, perhaps those who murdered once, could change.
Werent we taught as little kids that revenge is never the answer? Then why is there such thing as a death penalty? "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted." This is what is stated in the 14th amendment of the Bill of Rights. So why is there still a death penalty in the United States? The first laws created towards the death penalty go as far back as the Eighteenth Century B.C. in the Code of King Hammaurabi of Babylon, which allowed the death penalty to be carried out for 25 different crimes. In these early times death sentences were done by means of crucifixion, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement. Newer ways to go about the death penalty, more nineteenth century, include hanging, electric chair, gas chamber, and lethal injection. What do all these methods have in common? Well, they are all used to execute someone who has committed an extremely wrongful crime when there are better ways to deal with such individuals. Capital punishment is barbaric and goes against what is said in the Bill of Rights. There are numerous reasons why the death penalty should be removed from the 32 states that still allow it.
Weren’t we taught as little kids that revenge is never the answer? Then why is there such thing as a death penalty? "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted." This is what is stated in the 14th amendment of the Bill of Rights. So why is there still a death penalty in the United States? The first laws created towards the death penalty dates back as far as the Eighteenth Century B.C. in the Code of King Hammaurabi of Babylon, which allowed the death penalty to be carried out for 25 different crimes. In these early times death sentences were done by means of crucifixion, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement. Newer ways to approach the death penalty, more nineteenth century, include hanging, electric chair, gas chamber, and lethal injection. What do all these methods have in common? Well, they are all used to execute an individual who has committed an extremely wrongful crime when there are better ways to deal with such individuals. Capital punishment is barbaric and serves against what is stated in the Bill of Rights. There are numerous reasons why the death penalty should be removed from the 32 states that still allow it.
The death penalty is a huge controversy in the United States. There are many different feelings regarding the death penalty. Some feel like it is the easy way out for people who have committed heinous acts, and others feel like it is the perfect justice for those individuals. An argument made by the website ListVerse explained, that people teach their children not to steal, or commit crimes because they will be sent to prison and punished (ListVerse). Completing their argument, the same website also explained that if the same child, who was taught not to commit crime, commits murder, and is sentenced to the death penalty they are taught nothing (ListVerse). It is important that the criminal justice system not only serves justice, but also deters people from committing the same offense. On the opposing side of the argument, the website Phil for Humanity explains the importance of the death penalty. Phil for Humanity points out how expensive it is to house inmates, and that these individuals are extremely dangerous to society (Phil for Humanity). This paper will discuss the pros and the cons of the death penalty in greater detail.
“Between 1930 and 2010, 5,093 people were executed in the United States. As of 2010, 35 states and the federal government authorize capital punishment” (Source #2). The death penalty has been brought to court many times. Today most states believe that lethal injection is the most humane method of execution, but some states still have the firing squad, hanging, gas chambers, and electrocution. “All jurisdictions provide for execution by lethal injections. 16 jurisdictions provide for alternative methods of execution, contingent upon the choice of the inmate, the date of the execution or sentence, or the possibility of the method being held unconstitutional”(Source
The death penalty does not keep crime from happening. Over the years, the death penalty has been a very major moral issue within today’s society. This particular form of punishment is usually given to people who have been found guilty of capital crime. However, penalizing an individual in this manner is not a solution to the problem. The United States is already in a tremendous amount of debt and dealing with budget shortages, so spending thousands even hundreds of thousands on ending an individual’s life because they were found guilty of a crime is absolutely absurd. The death penalty costs taxpayers way more per year than a prisoner within the general population. It is a cruel punishment against mankind and therefore should be ceased. In conclusion, the death penalty should be discontinued in the United States because it uses up tax
Mahatma Gandhi echoed the phrase, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Capital punishment has been a process of punishment since time before Christ. Capital punishment or the death penalty, is the process of punishing, an individual, by execution for committing a crime. One moral theory to justify this process of punishment is cited in Mark Timmons’s book Disputed Moral Issues: A Reader. The consequentialist theory states, “A specific punishment for a certain crime is morally justified if and only if it would likely produce at least as much overall intrinsic value as would any other alternative punishment.” (Timmons, 535) However, this theory has multiple issues in justifying the death penalty, which would be consider a negative consequence. These issues are execution of innocent people, financial cost of executions, and the belief that executions are a deterrence.
In recent years, the death penalty has been a controversial topic when it comes to sentencing criminals that have committed serious crimes. Some believe that the death penalty is absolutely necessary and serves proper justice to those who commit unthinkable acts of violence. Advocates also believe that the whole argument is a matter of faith not fact and the death penalty, “honors human dignity by treating the defendant as a free individual able to control their own destiny for good or for worse, it does not treat any one person as an animal with no moral sense,”(Fein). However, others argue the cost and hassle of executions are simply not worth these acts, which are considered inhumane and cruel by many. Each execution case costs about
There are only two styles of executions that the United States still use. They are the firing squad and lethal injection. The firing squad is only used when states can’t get the drugs used for lethal injection, which isn’t often. States started using lethal injection because, “Lethal injection was intended to be a superior alternative to electrocution, gassing or hanging, all of which are known to go wrong in gruesome ways. But when pharmaceutical companies began refusing to provide their drugs for deadly use and stories of botched injections became commonplace, the same legal qualms that had turned courts against the earlier methods were raised about lethal injections” (Von Drehle). Lethal injection can be very
Capital Punishment, killing a criminal through a lawful process, is one of the most highly debatable subjects in the world. Execution can be done in any of the following ways, beheading, electric chair, firing squads, guillotines, hanging, lethal injection, poison gas, crucifixion and stoning. The most popular form used in the United States of America is lethal injection. Some may argue that this is the most civil way of killing the criminal, but others would argue that the death penalty is not civil at all whatsoever. Capital Punishment is seen as primitive by many, but also beneficial to the public through retribution. The Death Penalty helps prevent future crime, helps economically, and enforces deserved punishment, but also as seen as
John Grisham, an American politician, lawyer, and author once stated, “Death row is a nightmare to serial killers and ax murderers. For an innocent man, it 's a life of mental torture that the human spirit is not equipped to survive.” The death penalty, or capital punishment, refers to the punishment of a criminal convicted of a capital offense through execution (“Definition of Death Penalty”). With many criminals convicted of a capital offenses awaiting execution on death row, the death penalty has been a seriously debated topic since its reinstitution in the mid 1970s (“Reinstating”). Many in law enforcement have the view that there are positives to the death penalty, as execution serves as a form of retribution and is a direct deterrent to heinous crime. To many police officers capital punishment is a tool that assists and informs criminal justice and more specifically, law enforcement. Others believe that sentencing someone to death is not only inhumane, but is costly and there is always a chance that a person may be innocent and put to death (Drummond). In order to preserve human rights, save money, and save innocent lives, capital punishment should be abolished.